2. Median year of composition of works performed in 2014: 1870. No change in 104 years.

3. In 1910, 50% of all operas performed at The Met had been composed within the past 25 years. As perspective, to match that today, half of current programming would be composed since 1989 (the actual portion today is less than 5%).

4. In 1910, 80% of all operas performed at The Met had been composed within the past 50 years. Today, that means that most of their repertoire would be composed since 1964 (the actual current portion is also less than 5%).

5. The Met has only ever produced a single opera by a female composer. It was in 1903.

If there was ever any doubt that opera as currently practiced is an inherently European art form that never evolved within American culture, check out the graph showing the percentage of American composers featured at The Met over the last 100 years. Or any of the other graphs, it's very sobering data, and our thanks to Suby Raman for putting it together.

It's not too hard to figure out why more people in the U.S. don't go to the opera.